Common waterbed mattresses are large inflatable bladder-like structures made of soft, flexible and supple water-impermeable sheet plastic in which a suitable volume of water or other desired fluid medium is deposited. In practice, such mattresses are supported by frames that include horizontal platforms that support bottom walls of the mattresses and that include vertical side and end walls about the perimeters of the platforms and that support related side and end walls of the mattresses. When filled with a desired volume of water, the mattresses are inflated so that top walls thereof occur on horizontal planes, spaced above the bottom walls thereof, and that are near or substantially coincidental with the top planes of their related frames, defined by upper edges of the side and end walls thereof.
When waterbed mattresses of the general character referred to above are filled with water, they are extremely heavy and are such that they cannot be easily and safely moved. Accordingly, when waterbeds are to be moved (whether during installation or removal), the mattresses must be drained of water.
Ordinary or conventional waterbed mattresses are provided with filler fittings to facilitate filling them with water and through which water can be drained from the mattresses, as circumstances require. The filler fittings are engaged through and carried by the top walls of the mattresses, where they are accessible. The most common filler fittings have threaded necks with which garden hoses or the like can be connected to facilitate filling and draining the mattresses. When draining water from such mattresses, it can sometimes be let to drain by gravity, but more often, is extracted from the mattresses by means of aspirator pumps or the like that are engaged in the drain hoses and driven by water from a pressurized water service system.
The draining of water from waterbed mattresses, as noted above, has proven to be unsatisfactory since an inadequate amount of water within the mattresses can be drained or extracted therefrom before the collapsing mattress structure commences to interfere with and prevent desired draining of the mattresses. During the draining of water from such mattresses, the mattresses collapse and the thin flexible sheet material of which they are formed tends to wrinkle and fold to establish cavities and/or pockets in which water is retained. The slack plastic sheet material tends to move across and close off or seal the opening in the filler fitting before sufficient water is drained from the mattresses to allow them to be easily and effectively moved. The tendency for the thin plastic material of which the mattresses are made to close and seal the openings through which water is drained is greatly increased when pumping means are employed to extract water from the mattresses. In most instances, the draining of water from such mattresses is stopped or adversely impeded by the mattress structure when about two to four gallons of water weighing from 125 to 250 pounds remains in the mattresses. Thus, the mattresses are still too heavy and difficult for ordinary persons to move. To effect draining the remainder of the water from the mattresses, the mattresses must be manually pulled, lifted and otherwise tugged at in an effort to unstop the drain openings and to direct and/or chase the water that remains in the mattresses to the drain openings. The foregoing is a time-consuming, difficult and bothersome process that oftentimes causes persons to abandon the process when excessive water still remains in the mattresses.
It is to be noted that complete draining of water from the mattresses, when the mattresses are to be moved, is not only for the benefit of those who must manipulate the mattresses, but is to prevent damage to the mattresses. Pulling and dragging ordinary waterbed mattresses over the corners and edges of waterbed frames and the like, when the mattresses are loaded with 100 or more pounds of water is highly likely to result in tearing and/or rupturing the mattresses and must be avoided.
In the mid-1970s, a special class of drain fittings for waterbed mattresses was introduced into the waterbed art. Those fittings are sometimes referred to as "snorkel fittings" or "goose-neck fittings." Those drain fittings are connected with their related mattresses at the lower edge portions of related vertical side walls thereof and include elongate tubular necks of sufficient length to extend vertically upwardly to above the top plane of the mattresses. The necks of those fittings normally extend horizontally along the exterior of their related side walls of the mattresses and are sufficiently flexible so that they can be bent upwardly to project above the mattresses and connect with drain hoses, when draining of the mattresses is to be undertaken.
The above-noted drain fittings are such that they open into their related mattresses immediately above the bottom walls thereof and drain water from the bottoms of the mattresses, rather than from the tops of the mattresses, as is the case when draining water from the mattresses through their filler fittings. Accordingly, these noted drain fittings tend to effect the draining of a greater portion of the water from their related mattresses before portions of the mattresses move into interfering and disabling engagement therewith.
The advantages afforded by the above-noted special drain fittings has been determined by many to be insufficient to merit the provision and use thereof and they have failed to meet with any notable commercial success.
It is to be noted that the above-noted special drain fittings are still provided on mattresses produced by some waterbed manufacturers but are considered by most in the art to be of insufficient utility to be more than a sales promoting feature.
It has been determined that when the above-noted goose-neck or snorkel type drain fittings are used in combination with aspirator pumps and the inlet ends of the fittings are covered and sealed by portions of the mattresses, the pumps collapse the tubular necks of the fittings and prevent further draining of the mattresses. In order to restart the draining operations, the water supply to the aspirator pumps must be shut off to relax and permit the necks to reopen, the mattresses must be pulled and tugged at to displace the interfering mattress materials from overlying the fittings; and, the water supply must be once again turned on to continue draining the mattresses. As a general rule, the foregoing time-consuming and inconvenient procedure must be repeated a number of times before the mattresses are adequately drained of water.